What’s stopping you right now from going after your lifelong passion?
If your circumstances were just right, would you be able to pursue your destiny?
If you answered yes to the second question, than you’re fooling yourself.
The fact of the matter is, your current conditions do not shape or determine your future.
The key element that enables you to stop making excuses and to start excelling are your decisions.
I recently finished reading Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within, which is an absolutely incredible and life changing book.
Tony talks about the force behind every decision that we make deriving from either avoiding pain or gaining pleasure.
So let’s be brutally honest for a moment.
The reason you don’t do the truly important things in your life (like living it up to its fullest and ensuring you succeed at achieving your dreams) is because you subconsciously convince yourself that by taking any type of action towards these goals (where you may have to confront your fears) you’d be putting yourself in more pain than just putting it off for another time, if ever at all.
Tony states that “we all do more to avoid pain than we do to gain pleasure”.
The issue with this concept is that the perceived “pain” that we do link to going after our greatest ambitions are a big fat lie.
It’s fake, make believe, not fucking real or true.
Instead of just saying fuck it like you may have when you were a child without thinking about any consequences, we allow our minds to take control and persuade us into thinking a million different negative reasons why we shouldn’t take the leap.
We tell ourselves that it’ll be too hard, or that we will fail, look stupid and lose the confidence that we do have.
But all of these excuses can cease to exist.
It’s possible to change these linking patterns that we we’ve unknowingly built up over our lives.
It’s time to say F the BS.
Below is an exercise that I learned from Awaken the Giant Within that you can perform on yourself. In the example below, I’ve used my own situation to help guide you.
Do this and you’ll discover the power of your decisions and how you can learn to link more pain to NOT pursuing your goals and more pleasure to going after them!
What is your ultimate passion in life?
Writing and publishing a book which can help make a meaningful impact for others and allow me to contribute more to society.
What actions have you been putting off from achieving this goal?
I’ve gotten to the point where I need to begin editing the book, and since I’m not an editor I’ve been delaying the process of getting started.
In addition, I know that I can improve the context within a few chapters, but now my mind has started thinking about the idea of the book not being as good as other books that I’ve read. It’s making me second guess the entire idea of writing.
What pain have you linked to taking this action?
I’m linking the possibility of the book not being written as well as I know that it can be.
Write down the pleasure you’ve had in the past by indulging in this negative pattern.
I’m able to push it to the side and not think about it all the time, which leads to less stress and worry.
I’m able to concentrate on other important parts of my life, which leads to improvement in other facets.
I’m able to convince myself that when I’m ready I’ll get to it, which leads to me feeling content.
Write down what it will cost you if you don’t change now.
If I don’t change now…
I may lose my flow and never finish writing or publishing the book.
I may fail at achieving my ultimate passion.
Hows does that make you feel?
It makes me feel like my roadblocks aren’t as extreme in the big picture, that not attaining my goal would feel much worse, and that I should focus on completing the essential tasks that I need to in order to go after my passion.
Write down all the pleasure you’ll receive by taking each of these actions right now. Envision all the positive impacts both in the present and in the long term.
By editing my book and improving the certain chapters that need to be bolstered, I’ll be able to take one step closer to successfully publishing my book. It’ll give me back the momentum that I felt when I was writing the book originally.
In doing so, it will allow me to then promote the book and help make a positive impact on all of the others that read it.
Even more so, by spreading the word about my book via podcasts, videos, content, social media, etc, I will be able to not only learn the process of marketing a book, but also educate people on different aspects of my central messages (without them necessarily reading the book) that will lead to making an impact in their lives.
Considering the book will be available to purchase for years to come, there’s no telling the number of lives it can impact. Also, it can give me the confidence I need to go after writing a second or even third book. This could lead to building new relationships, going further out of my comfort zone, trying out new things (like public speaking and becoming a coach/offering lessons), growing as a person, contributing more and ultimately gaining way more pleasure in my life.
“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” —Tony Robbins”